About 100 suspected militants linked to al-Qaeda have been arrested in Saudi Arabia, the interior ministry said. A ministry spokesman said 47 Saudis and 51 foreigners in three independent groups were planning to target oil facilities and security forces. The groups had links to an al-Qaeda organisation based in neighbouring Yemen, spokesman Mansour al-Turki said.
Analysts say the group, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has exploited instability in Yemen to set up bases. Mansour al-Turki said weapons, cameras, documents and computers were also seized. He said a "network" and two cells working independently of each other had been uncovered. "The network and the two cells were targeting the oil facilities in the Eastern Province and they had plans that were about to be implemented," he said.
'Yemen link'
The foreigners arrested were from Yemen, Somalia, Eritrea and Bangladesh. Mansour al-Turki said the investigation so far revealed "correspondence between this organisation and al-Qaeda's organisation in Yemen". Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was formed in January 2009 by a merger between two regional offshoots of the Islamist militant network in neighbouring Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Led by a former aide to Osama Bin Laden, the group has vowed to attack oil facilities, foreigners and security forces as it seeks to topple the Saudi monarchy and Yemeni government, and establish an Islamic caliphate.
There has been no news on which oil installations were being targeted and whether they were foreign- or Saudi-owned. In 2003, suicide bombers suspected of having links with al-Qaeda killed 35 people in the capital, Riyadh. They included a number of foreigners. Saudi Arabian security forces have arrested a number of militant suspects since then. In 2007, officials said 172 terror suspects had been arrested; and in August 2009 44 suspects with alleged links to al-Qaeda were detained. Source: BBC News
